


An Affinity

by lulahbelle



Category: The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Genre: A hymn to Channing Tatum's physical attractiveness, Class Difference, M/M, Modern Historical AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 20:41:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/917803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lulahbelle/pseuds/lulahbelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Esca investigates his rather beautiful gardener.</p>
          </blockquote>





	1. An Affinity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Esca investigates his rather beautiful gardener.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -This is set sometime before the legalisation of homosexuality, more specific than that I cannot be and even though I am being wilfully vague about the time period I suspect it's still, somehow, anachronistic.  
> -I wrote this for the Fanmedia Challenge Round 2 in response to 3 of the picture prompts, the cupped hands, the strigil and the little blue boat.  
> -It is challenge fic, long arse challenge fic, and as such it was written very quickly to make the deadline. It is also fic written by me and thus is probably a bit rubbish and in needs of being looked over by a beta, however it allows me to go through to the 3rd round of the challenge and that's really all I care about right now.  
> -Esca is the priviledged one in this fic, just because why not.

Two hours after sunrise and sweat was already prickling Esca's hairline and the small of his back. He stood up, undid the top few buttons of his shirt and unlatched the window above his writing desk.

It was heaven outside. Above the roofs he could see the sea, and if not for the few homes to the East of his he would have seen the seafront, the Piers, the swarm of arriving day trippers and local people, making their way out onto the beach to take some of their share of this heatwave.

He would have seen the dark underscore of these lighthearted travellers too. The dirty faced, slum children, who he felt such sympathy for, their cupped hands open, begging for coin from the straight backed and corseted rich. As surely as he could now hear the screeching, ornery seagulls fighting one another for the scraps of life.

He was meant to be devoting the day to writing but the world had distracted him.

Looking directly beneath the window into his large garden he watched as a strange man walked into view from the side of his house.

Esca lived in London the majority of the year, he had only just returned to this, his holiday home, and when he was away from it he had little interest in its running, leaving the hire of servants down to his Aunt who lived in the place whenever he wasn't there. She would write telling him who she had hired, giving her reasons but he paid these letters no mind whatsoever.

So it was that now he found himself standing here watching a member of staff attending to his property who he knew nothing about.

Esca wished he had been formally introduced to this one.

He was barechested and tall, dark and handsome, like the heroes in those silly romances that his cousins left in the house that he had tried not to read too much these boring and lonely nights.

He watched him pacing briefly back and forth across the lawn fetching things, then as leant on his rake gazing out over the grass, face sulky, contemplative, presumably thinking about what part he would tackle next.

He was Mediterranean in colouring, his body very lightly tanned, hair glossy and dark chocolate, fitting, for his thick and muscled body was much like that of the statue of Ares, Greek God of War, that Esca had once seen in a museum and walked around for some time, hypnotised by desire, eyes wide in abject awe.

That had been a while ago now, back in those days when he was an undergraduate in denial of himself and still blaming his deep, abiding love of the male nude on nothing more personal than an overactive appreciation of Ancient civilisations.

He was a bit more unashamed about his lusts nowadays. So it was that he decided he could well afford a break and that he could do worse with that time than investigating this human God further.

His home with all its Georgian splendor was large and it took many steps to get from the swelter of the top to the absolute bottom. He took the trek with excitement curling in his stomach, wondering to himself what words he could summon to win the creature over, with the worry that he might instead dry and have nothing to say.

All the same he was optimistic, aware that he was in the priviledged position that if worst came to worse during their conversation, he could always conceal his interest in him as strictly professional given that he was technically the man's employer.

Esca was pretty optimistic anyway. Though he could be sullen and intense in general he was different with regards to men he found attractive. Men aroused a fighter's stance from him. He could be very impulsive and direct in their pursuit indeed.

*

He passed out of the back door as silent as smoke to the sun scorched flat of his lawn.

The creature faced away from him now, raking up the flower bed in the furthest corner of that bright green place.

Esca cleared his throat as politely as possible and the God whipped his head up shocked, his expression fearful, apparently less immortal than a skittish, jumpy animal. 

Esca strode out and as he got closer the God only got lovelier.

He was so very terribly, impossibly, handsome. Large bones, his shoulders wide but he somehow had fairly elegant features, the nose slender was well framed by the curve of a kissable mouth, pouting in confusion.

They locked eyes together and Esca realised his quarry's were a muddy green that seemed brighter or darker depending on where he focused in them.

Esca's heart thudded hard in his chest, filling his throat, he began to get a headache, a daze, like he had been out in the sun too long.

A slight furrow came to his brow, like Esca was someone he thought he knew or remembered.

The God's eyes flickered down then over his shirtless body, which made Esca's eyes fall there again too.

His body was so exquisitely composed, still a fair match for a statue for he looked impossibly formed, moulded by artisan's hands for the express purpose of communicating all the wonder and aesthetic pleasure that might be contained in a man's body, rather than dragged along by cruel, irregular pinches of growth the way other young men were.

"I'm sorry..." the God said of his lack of full dress, eyes darting around the place struggling to relocate his shirt.

Esca had truly not expected that such a specimen might be even vaguely self conscious, the fact that he was charmed him.

"No please, don't worry, it's far too hot out here for you to be clothed."

The God noticed that Esca was staring at him intently and looked away as if uncomfortable, but his eyes didn't stay away long.

Esca smiled, "I was writing in the back room up there but I got bored all by myself and I saw you out here alone, thought you looked a fine fellow and wondered if we might pass a break time together."

"Together?" The God said eyes narrowing, dubious.

Esca understood his surprise, it was the class difference between them. He was used to that, the few men he had sought out in his life were consciously lower in class than him and most had presumed he would have better things to do than spend time with them but Esca preferred such men to any of gentlemanly society. Perhaps he romanticised them a little but the necessity of work usually led these men to live such a basically honest life that they were almost always guaranteed to be a better quality of person than Esca's peers.

"Yes together, with talking and the likes..."

When this did not loosen his expression Esca said, "Here, I should probably introduce myself properly. My name is Esca."

The God nodded with a brief smile, then when the following moment of silence between them extended longer than a beat, in danger of being awkward, he took up the rake he leant on once more to an operational grip in his hands and began to once again rake the bare, dilapidated flower beds.

Full of such need for him that he burst with it Esca decided that as small talk hadn't worked he ought to be blunt.

"You know you have a quite marvellous physique," he said, staring at him, nervous to register the effect his words had.

A curving smile came to his lips, that startled Esca, excited him, "I mean if you don't mind my saying. I mean surely plenty of others have...?" Esca said, insinuating.

"Some," the God said before bending down to pull out some weed roots with his hands, giving Esca a nice show of his firm behind in the process.

Esca smirked.

The God looked calmer now, looser, as if assured of the terrain and it inspired a spirit of relaxation in Esca too. Presuming the God was content for him to stay he pulled up a piece of lawn furniture and sat to watch him.

"So you are our gardener?"

The God looked at him, face seized outrightly disagreeing at that, the look so bold and agressive that Esca raised his eyebrows.

"No. Your servant Stephanos is my uncle. He's old, can't work as hard as he wants to out here so I come down here & help."

"So, what do you do when you're not gardening?" Esca asked, aware that as he relaxed he was consciously becoming more camp, crossing his legs in the way that had gotten him a reputation back in boarding school.

"Nothing exciting," He said looking up, then as he gazed at Esca sitting there it was as if he grew self conscious, so that he smiled and said, "Well I mean I've a boat..."

"Really? How fantastic." Esca said brightly.

The God looked a little embarrassed then and looked away laughing at himself, "I just made it sound much grander than it is."

The big, bronzed Adonis had stumbled over his meanings as if Esca's relaxed, admiring presence made him nervous? The prospect fair surprised Esca.

"Its just a little small blue fishing boat, on the beach and I only half own it," he continued.

Esca laughed, delighted that this man, this beautiful, superior creature wanted to impress him, it boded well.

"Fishing? So you're a fisherman then?"

Aware that he was so intensely watched that he didn't need to look at Esca Marcus smiled and nodded looking down into his task, although he didn't seem to be doing much of anything anymore, his hands stilling, it was more like he was trying anything he could not to look as interested in their conversation and in Esca's naked appraisal of his body as he was.

"...looks like a hard job."

"Can be."

"How do you find the time to fit them both in?"

"I work with another and I find some people to cover me a few days so I can help my uncle do his work here. He took care of me when I was down so I owe him."

"That's very good of you."

He laughed incredulous, "Is it?" As if anyone might do the same for a relative, but Esca knew many people who would not. The abandonment he had received from his estranged grandparents when his parents died, where they sent him money but no support or human, familial kindness told him all he needed to know on that front.

"Well you're doing a fine job." Esca said, nodding.

The God stared back at him with raised eyebrows at that and smiled so warmly, "Thank you..." he turned the possibility of using Esca's name over in his head for a split second then addressed him with a small nod of deference as, "Sir,"

It reminded Esca.

"What's your name?"

"Marcus."

Esca got up at once, walked toward him and extended a hand to shake with his own nod, "Hello Marcus."

He smelt good, sweaty and infinitely human.

"My hands are dirty," Marcus replied looking down at them a little ashamed.

"Well I can always go in and wash mine after", Esca said, searching out his eyes which hid from his again now that they were so close.

"Come it's only decent to touch flesh when you're meeting someone for the first time."

Marcus wiped his hands down on his trousers and reached out.

Esca shook and squeezed the back of his hand with the other hand.

"A pleasure to meet you Marcus." He said, nodding again.

Marcus gave the frankest look of wary confusion that Esca had seen down upon him and Esca felt himself warm, melting, expanding closer and nearer to soothe that insecurity.

"You're working here all day?"

Marcus nodded so Esca nodded, trying not to show that his very skin was tingling to merely be in his presence and hold his gaze so frankly.

"Ok well there's a fair amount of work for me to do today so I should really get back to it but I might come back out again later if you wouldn't mind it?"

Marcus shrugged. "It's ok with me."

Esca looked directly into those green brown eyes so doe and soft, unwilling to quite leave but it wasn't decent to hang around much beyond there and he decided that he ought to at least pretend to be equally as cool as Marcus was.

As they parted he swept a look over Marcus' body to sustain him. When his eyes skirted his face Marcus' look at him was equal parts confusion and pleasure.

Whatever Esca's actual chances he knew this Marcus liked to find appreciative male eyes upon him.

*

Writing was unable to compete with the compulsive draw of Marcus' body. All too soon Esca found himself staring, from the window, at his big brawn form executing tasks with an single minded grace that filled him with utter, filthy desire.

He stared at those flexing muscles, sheened by sweat, at the pouty sulky mouth until he felt such a strong desire to kiss it, to plunge into it with tongue and own it that he couldn't sit still.

As he paced his room his fantasies were a little violent, of fighting him, breaths harsh, wrestling, oiled in Ancient Greece or Rome, or out on the lawn, wounding him, or being bloodied until rich submission was found within him.

Esca did not last too long before he found himself back out there again.

He was drinking now. Scotch.

"Do you want a drink?"

"I just had some water thank you sir," Marcus said.

Esca knew that, he had watched from the window as he pulled the moisture from the glass down into his throat with strong swallows and sighed with how much he needed to have him.

"Will you be back tomorrow?"

"No sir."

Esca's heart sank to hear that but he was not someone who accepted defeat without fight.

"What will you do instead?"

"I don't know I have nothing planned."

"If I paid you would you come for a walk with me?"

He looked insulted, "If you paid me? I do not need to be paid to walk somewhere..." Then seemingly humouring him he said, "Where would we walk to?"

"Anywhere, I went to school here and if we head in that direction or that one there is a large quantity of downland just waiting to be explored, there are butterflies to be seen and sights to be had. It would be an adventure where ever we ended up."

Marcus smiled indulgently, clearly finding the suggestion a silly one, but at the same time he did not seem to be rejecting it but instead stood still, wanting to be won over.

For someone so big and handsome, who had presumably lived some sort of rough life to be so apparently passive, and possible, made Esca's blood hot.

"We could set off for the Dyke in the morning? It's just over there as the Eagle flies?"

Marcus laughed.

"If you are unsure it is only because we are not proper friends yet."

"Yet?"

"Yes." Esca nodded. "We could be friends."

Those dubious raised eyebrows came from Marcus again, "Could we?"

Esca nodded smiling sweetly yes, for he truly respected nothing that would stop it.

"Listen I've been drinking, inside. As you've worked all day I think you should come join me at it..."

Marcus' eyebrows quirked and Esca felt alternately thrilled and embarrassed by the shamelessness of his come on.

"I feel like I would make things dirty in there."

"I don't care, you've done some hard work today, you deserve a reward. I have Whisky... Scotch?"

Marcus laughed with great good nature positively bursting from every pore of his impressive body.

"Ok I'll have a drink but outside, I'm sweating something horrible."

Esca looked at him disappointed, he was not used to being frustrated in seekingc what he wanted.

"Ok come round to the door I'll bring it out to you."

"Thank you sir."

Having poured the amber liquid from decanter to glass, Esca stood on the threshold of the inner door as Marcus stood on the outer threshold of the outward one.

An oblong of hall, carpeted brown stood between them.

Esca stepped out and with arms stretched held out the glass to Marcus.

Marcus exhaled heavy and tired and he reached for it but as he did Esca pulled back towards the house.

There further back in the shadow of the hallway he held out his hand with the drink again. Marcus smirked and stepped as close to the threshold as he could without stepping inside and again reached. He was fingertips away until Esca stepped back.

"Ah if you want it you have to come inside."

Marcus smirked, stunningly pleased to be had and stepped up, so tall that he almost hit the doorframe.

It was thrilling how imposing and beautiful he was, stood over him so much taller and thicker built.

He forcefully lunged for the drink and Esca skipped back just enough to deny him again.

Esca could smell him too strongly now, his yeasty sweat thick in the air and he ached to find the salt of his skin with his tongue, to worship the swells of his chest with kisses.

This time he was so close, so quick and snatched it from Esca, laughing as he downed it all at once.

He was so powerful.

What it would be to see him ontop of you, sweating and enjoying you, pounding his way home with force and he seemed to be such a agreeable creature too, the sort of man who might well give anyone exactly what they needed of him if only they asked him in the right way.

Esca shivered and asked flirtatious,

"You want more?"

He stood in the parlour, laughing, clutching the empty glass in his big hands and nodded his head, "Ok, one more and then I have to get home."

"Who's waiting for you at home, are you married?"

He stared at Esca as he gave the question a peculiar little laugh and shook his head, "No."

"Ever been married?"

He shook his head again still laughing, "Why do you ask?"

"Well you're a handsome man."

"You think I'm handsome?"

Esca nodded and it was only then that he remembered to follow the bald compliment up with a point and said, "Women should be interested in you was what I was saying."

Marcus' mouth was curled in a cheeky little smirk, "They are, I just don't find I'm much interested in them."

"No?"

He shook his head, "Me either." Esca agreed, wondering if they were communicating using the same code but utterly utterly unsure.

"...Weren't you gonna give me another drink." Marcus said teasingly.

Esca poured the drink and held it out to Marcus but as Marcus reached he brought it to his own mouth and sipped it deliberately slow, letting it linger burning and wet on his mouth. He looked dead ahead, staring at Marcus, licking his lips. Marcus grabbed him by the shirt forcefully and asked.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"I don't know, how is it that I'm looking at you?"

"...Like... I don't know..." At that he pushed Esca back by his shirt and huffed shaking his head with an unhappy expression on his face.

He turned and looked as if he would leave without anything else, as if he would so easily frustrate Esca, but then asked, casualness itself.

"You still want to go for that walk tomorrow?"


	2. Eros is a great leveller

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marcus' preferences are gradually pinned down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title comes from an awesome quote by the awesome [Edward Carpenter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Carpenter) about his homosexual relationships with working class men.
> 
> I may have, sort of, a bit, taken inspiration from him, alot.

They sat on the green at the top of the hill and stared in the sun at the breathtaking vista afforded by their elevated position. The spread of West Sussex before them was mostly a patchwork of fields of different greens and some yellows, seperated by bobbled hedges.

*

"My father used to bring me here when I was a child, it was one of the few things we did together, he used to take me to the Zoo that was up here, he's not alive now so I rather cherish the memory."

"My dad's dead too. That's how I got my fishing boat."

"He was a fisherman as well?"

"The World's worst."

Esca smiled. "I'm sure he wasn't."

Marcus nodded his head hard, "He was, he did it with a friend of his, Lucius, and one night there was a storm, a really bad storm and they were out in it and it just swept my dad away."

Esca frowned "...Just lost to the sea?"

Marcus smiled small as he nodded, wryly at fate.

Esca had flash backs to the newsletters that told of poor orphaned, fatherless children in the parish who needed financial support that his parents, wealthy people and good Christians, would receive from Church every Sunday.

The cupped hands of the begging children on the seafront.

"Must have been hard on your family." He said still infinitely pained by their plight.

Marcus nodded, "My mother and I ended up in the workhouse, but she managed to find work in the end, my uncle, Stephanos, he was my dad's brother, found her a maid job and uhm Lucius sent us some money too from the fishing and when I was 13 I went to fish with him."

Esca nodded, "Do you like fishing?"

"Sometimes when I'm out there and I can feel my dad... But mostly not, it's too heavy, you come back from the day smelling. I only do it because I feel like I owe my dad but sometimes that doesn't feel like it's enough... sometimes I want to go far far away from it all."

His utter honesty disarmed Esca, he had friends he had known for decades who would never have revealed such basic facts abut their soul and their insecurities to him

"You would move away?" Esca said, not reacting to the sadness he inappropriately felt at the thought.

"Well my uncle says I should go up North, he has a friend who could get me started in service, maybe I could be a butler...but I don't know...none of my options look too good..."

There Marcus began to look belatedly downcast.

"...Sorry... I don't talk much to anyone so when I do I just do too much."

Esca frowned, very concerned that the dear creature thought he was boring him, "No please, feel free, I want to know these things."

Marcus shook his head and gayily asked instead. "What do you do for a living?"

"Not much, although I am sometimes a translator, books, plays that sort of thing. An easy job."

"You must be smart though."

Esca shrugged, unsure whether he agreed.

"What languages do you do?"

"Gaelic is my passion, my mother was Irish but there isn't much work in it. I mostly settle for the big ones, Spanish, German, French, Italian."

Marcus' smile was brilliant at that, "My dad was Italian."

"Do you speak any of it?"

Marcus laughed at him and gave him a look like it was a ridiculous possibility. "He died when I was really young."

"Ah ok. It's funny because the first thing I thought when I saw you was that you looked quite Mediterranean"

"Really?" Marcus said shyly.

Esca nodded, "Your colouring is identical to the boys in Rome."

"You've actually been to Italy?"

Esca nodded, with a large smile, suprised that so simple a fact could wow him.

"What was it like?" Marcus said, clearly excited to hear.

Esca smiled so especially at that and began to tell him everything that he could remember about his trips there, educating him briefly about parts of Roman history when it became essential to explain the artifacts he had seen and loved there.

*

They went quiet.

Esca wondered to himself what they must look like to outsiders, just a pair of day trippers, a pair of young men lunching between ales. He wondered what they were to one another, whether Marcus even wanted his lust for him, it seemed he did, or might, but Esca had been wrong footed on this account a few times before.

The relationship Esca wanted with him was a crime in this country of theirs, so it was essential that such affairs unravelled in such a slow way, that he did not make a move toward this precious man unless absolutely sure he would not to be stung with blackmail or arrest from him for doing so.

Marcus got up and reached out his hand and when Esca took it he pulled him up. The strength in his arm was devastating. Esca once again had phantom thoughts of being manhandled down onto the grass and just fucked to a hard, driving tempo.

*  
They walked down for a meal and a drink at the Golf Club.

Marcus positively shrank at the prices, unable to afford anything, so Esca paid.

Esca expected the way that Marcus promised to pay him back, but not for the stubborn way that he continued to insist that he would when Esca told him to forget about it.

If there was any advantage to wealth it could only be these times when one used it to treat others with the respect they deserved from the world and at first Esca felt a little hurt, annoyed that someone should so reject his easy generosity but then steadily he saw that for Marcus this was an issue of decency.

He would not take from him though he could.

*  
As they walked the short distance down the green verged road to the Dyke railway terminus Esca was a mixture of satiated and disatisfied. He had meant to get some definitive clue that Marcus would welcome his sexual advance but for all their steady enjoyable conversation, for all Esca's drunken flirting - telling him as the wine flowed about the scandalous love affairs of the classical world, many of them just happening to involve beautiful boys and or beautiful poor boys and rich, powerful men, there had been no real way into talking about their personal desires.

*  
They sat on the train and watched the deepening blue of the sky reaching sunset over the top of the golden fields.

At his side Marcus began to really smile, he was likely knocked sideways by drink of which he had consumed alot but whatever its cause it was such a pleasant sight on his face which at first had focused his anxiety about what he was doing here with someone like Esca on serious expressions.

Marcus then said, unexpected entirely, "I was thinking... when we get back to town we could...well I normally go to the Turkish baths by the Pier in the evenings, will you come with me when we get off?"

Esca's eyebrows raised, his heart beating too fast.

Turkish baths? Everyone knew the sort of thing that went on in those places at this time of the night.

It was a place that required men to sit around partially clothed or naked, therefore it was an easy place to find a stranger willing to give you a friendly wank and damn near entirely frequented by the sorts who would desire such a thing from another man.

But surely decent fellows went there too, Esca thought in Marcus' defense, smirking to himself, happily suspecting that this Marcus, regular Turkish bath attender wasn't a 'decent' fellow at all.

Esca laughed, so very very happy, "Of course I will," He said.

*  
The whole vicinity was tiled.

Just the smell of the air, damp mixed with certain exotic, luxuriant oils that went into the aroma baths brought Esca back.

He had come here once during Summer Vac years ago when he was a student, so used to the easy access of pretty drunk freshers cursed with a deep urge for the physical that he could not overcome with his hand.

He hadn't ever had sex there, not that his search for sex had been fruitless, such a search never could be in such a place, just that the first man who laid a hand on his thigh had looked like his Priest and that had startled him enough to go home shaky with sadness at his sin, his cheeks burning, his eyes welling with tears.

But that was a long time ago and he had a reason for optimistically thinking that today would be very different because the closer they got to being naked, the more jovial Marcus' manner got.

He laughed alot, at everything now.

*

Marcus disrobed the moment he got into the steam bath. He was so tall and broad shouldered, his thighs bulging as much as his biceps and chest did either side of his slim waist and perfect buttocks. Glorious. Esca saw the other men in the room staring at him with lust as he walked through them and their admiration for him made Esca think of the day he had gotten to spend at his elbow, drinking in his sighs and his silence, teasing him and seeing his handsome smile, letting his words fall into his ears.

He had to close his eyes, stop watching the other men ogling Marcus just to avoid his cock swelling to levels which the men around him might misinterprate.

*

Marcus left the cold plunge pool first whispering into Esca's ear that he was going to the relaxation room.

When Esca joined him in one of the large, private cubicles he was still statueesque but now his whole torso above his towel was shined by oil that he'd rubbed into his body and he was busy pouring more from a decanter into his hands.

His full lips wore such an unashamedly filthy sort of smile for Esca, the drink they had consumed was still lighting his veins.

"I should get a massage I'm all hard and tense." Esca said to him.

Extending his cupped hands full of oil to Esca like a begging child, Marcus said, "I could give you one,"

Esca wanted to be given one so much that he was in a daze and all he could do was nod.

Finally Marcus just stepped to him and took the initiative and reached out for his shoulder, squeezing a little at the front of him before stepping swiftly behind and really working his muscles.

It was painful how hard he rubbed into him, but the agony left such a flow of joy behind, he breathed hard, "Oh."

His cock hard as stone now, proudly jutting out from his body, burning. Still on went those large hands steadily bringing no pain anymore just soothe, heating him inside and out, bringing him down until he was nothing but his hectic breaths and his aching cock.

Then, shocking, Marcus' mouth dropped, and he kissed, slow and full lipped down the muscles of his shoulders.

It made Esca's heart hurt how tender he was, just as much as it made him moan in desperate need.

Esca sighed unable to cope with the joy he felt under his touch and unable to just receive when there was the option to do so much more, "Can I touch you? He asked.

Marcus kissed between his shoulder blade one last time, full lipped and lingering, rubbing his nose there, breathing warm, so affectionate, making Esca ripple with his kindness.

Then he stepped before him, turning swiftly before Esca could be distracted by the shape of his proud cock through the bath sheet.

  
Esca got his oiled hands on that appallingly fine body at once and was filled with fulfillment immediately, for each time when he grabbed another large handful of rigid muscle and kneaded it to softness, he received Marcus' deep groan of "Uhhhhh."

He quickly returned the favour he was dealt, kissing slowly over the swells of his muscular back loving and slow and how Marcus sighed under that treatment, reaching back to stroke fingertips down Esca's side and drawing the deepest breaths too cool himself, palming his cock as if entirely too satisfied.

It was all together the most erotic thing Esca had ever experienced, if he had put his hand on his own cock he truly could have pulled himself off in less than two tugs just knowing he could have this effect on him with something so simple.

"Ah sir," Marcus gasped, an absent darkness filling his eyes, as if the pleasure Esca gave was stripping him, making him anew.

Then he gripped Esca's head hard and kissed him, open mouth insisting, lips so soft sliding over his, then opening, wet, his muscular tongue pushing.

Marcus stripped his towel quickly revealing his cock, then stroked its swollen softeness, exhaling harshly before pulling Esca's towel off too

He worked his hips toward Esca's so that their cocks thick and livid with blood poked and prodded, then slid along one anothers.

After a while of stroking them both to their conjoined delighted panting he played solely with Esca's, gently tugging it then holding, rubbing the spot underneath with his thumb that made Esca's head fall, the pleasure mounting up in his belly too much. It had been so long, too long and he wanted him so much.

Esca grabbed his wrist. Marcus looked annoyed.

"Well you don't want me to come off already do you?"

Marcus got the message to let him cool down and with a filthy smirk went to go and get some more oil.

Esca stalked him, feeling it game how he then pushed him softly, chest into the wall.

He coated his fingertips with oil and began to massage the area previously covered by towel, first feeling down the taut muscles of his back, moving then to his thighs, his buttocks until all of him shone in the light.

Marcus sighed and moaned so deliciously at this treatment.

He felt every bit as good as he looked, his muscles filling Esca's hands.

"You're perfect," Esca said to him.

Marcus looked around at him with such a glorious smile, all pleasure, so sweetly submissive that it made Esca ache.

All that beauty at his service, to satisfy him.

Pulsing, so excited, he grouped one of Marcus' thighs between his legs and began to rub his cock against him.

Marcus reached below him to pull himself off.

"Please." He gasped.

Esca kissed his back some more. That he seemed to want this made a momentary surge of righteousness in Esca. He grew ruthless in the pursuit of his own pleasure working off on him harder. Then he began to think again and a strange paranoia and shame reared up.

Surely such glory would need to be paid for, perhaps in hurt feelings. Perhaps he should use him softer, kinder. To do so he had to calm himself and he tried but he could not slow.

"I can't stop myself," He breathed.

Marcus turned to face him, imploring him with his eyes and said, "You don't need to... You're free my friend."

On the flow of those words he kissed his back to thank him.

The joy climbed with his thrusts, the heat between his legs burning.

"Please."

All the coiled ache previously confined to his balls and his prick, burst out, shivery over every centimetre of his body and crested, climbing until he spurted hot all up Marcus' tanned back.

Esca's breath was harsh, his eyesight fuzzy.

Marcus seemed to be smiling, so happy. "Give me this," he said, grabbing his hand and pulling it to settle on his cock, His cheek lain on the tiles he said, "Tug as hard as you can."

In a greatful daze Esca did just that, pulling his rigid, slippery thing until it pulsed hot and discharged up his belly. E

sca was so gratified to have made him feel good, he felt so lucky to have had the opportunity.

Marcus pulled his hair and began kissing him lewdly and did not stop for the next five minutes.

*  
In the sooty black night, illuminated by gas lamps and the sad clack clack of horse hooves they reached the place where their paths seperated one to one side and one to another.

They parted on a corner. Esca for his empty grand house, Marcus for his small room in a slum house on a thin, cramped street.

It was a strange thing that two such different fellows were able to share as well and as naturally as they had and Esca marvelled at it.

Marcus tackled the possibility of farewells first and said, "Thank you, it has been the best day I have passed in a long time.

Words seemed that they would do feeble service to Esca's heart, which soared like an Eagle everytime he looked at him and all he could do was nod.

Apparently thinking that Esca's reserve marked rejection Marcus lowered his head with a nod, his lips in a tiny purse of discontent.

Esca saw his soul there, he was a strong man, one who had learnt to see his hungers as punishment for something he had done, one who was familiar with punishment and resolved to bear it with dignity.

Esca wanted so much to give himself whole to soothe this poor kindly spirit and without even looking around to see if there were anyone about he grabbed Marcus' hand and kissed it.

Locked into his eye contact Marcus smiled.

The danger, the illicitness of their contact excited Esca, his cock twinged.

He grabbed that strong large hand of his again and kissed once more, lingering this time as if the 6ft plus man before him were some pretty madam.

The fear of what might happen if they were seen at this, of how they might be pilloried for this joy he stole made every sensation larger, more intense and for them both for Esca was aware from how Marcus' breath caught that he was also clearly aroused by this small thing.

"You mustn't," Marcus said, but the look of beautiful surprise on his face made it so that Esca found he really must.

This time he did look around and when he saw that there was absolutely no one out to see them but the Moon, blue in the sky and the scatter of stars in the outer universe twinkling down, he kissed him just briefly at the hidden warmth of his throat.

"Perhaps you needn't go home just yet? Perhaps there is something else for us to do." Esca said, his hand sliding down Marcus' belly and settling between his legs.

Marcus raised his eyebrows with a filthy smirk ghosting over his mouth in the darkness.

"But where? I live in a boarding house with others and you look like you might bust out of your breeches if we try to make it to where you live.

Esca shrugged, "You said your boat was on the beach...the beach is just down the way?"

Marcus smiled and shook his head as if it was lunacy but they did not take long to make their way there.


End file.
